Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called on Nobel Peace Prize laureate and honorary Canadian Aung San Suu Kyi to publicly condemn the atrocities being committed against Rohingya Muslims in Myanmar, in what the United Nations has called “a textbook example of ethnic cleansing.”
Suu Kyi, the de facto leader of Myanmar, also known as Burma, has come in for withering international criticism for failing to stop — or even speak out against — the violence, which has driven nearly 400,000 Rohingyas, most of them women and children, to seek refuge in neighbouring Bangladesh.
“It is with profound surprise, disappointment and dismay that your fellow Canadians have witnessed your continuing silence in the face of the brutal oppression of Myanmar’s Rohingya Muslim people,” Trudeau wrote Monday in a letter to Suu Kyi.
“I remain deeply concerned about the situation they face and the protection of all ethnic minorities in Myanmar.”
The Burmese military and Buddhist mobs are accused of a brutal crackdown on Rohingya villages in the Rakhine state following an attack by Rohingya militants on 30 police stations and an army outpost on Aug. 25.
“Emblematic of longstanding discrimination and gross violations of human rights, reports cite the disproportionate use of force, extrajudicial killings, and burning of villages by security forces,” Trudeau wrote. “Landmines are allegedly being laid with systematic violations of international law, which if established by a court of law, amount to crimes against humanity.”
The responsibility to resolve the crisis falls directly on Suu Kyi’s shoulders, Trudeau wrote.
“As the de facto democratic leader of Myanmar and as a renowned advocate for human rights, you have a particular moral and political obligation to speak out against this appalling cruelty, and to do whatever is in your power to stop it,” Trudeau wrote.
Trudeau also outlined further steps he would like the Myanmar government and military to take, calling on the Myanmar security forces to end the violence and bring the perpetrators to justice through independent and impartial investigations.
With files from The Canadian Press
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